->''"I apologize, that was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? ''[='=]Gee, do you think it'll come back later, maybe?[='=]'' I hate it when movies do that: TV's on, talking about the new power plant... Hmm, I wonder where the big climax will happen?"''-->-- '''[[LemonyNarrator Harry]]''', ''Film/KissKissBangBang''

%%%%%%%% This list of examples has been alphabetized. Please add your example in the proper place. Thanks!%%%%%%%%

''Every detail given is important.''

[[RaceAgainstTheClock We have 42 minutes.]] If we give a detail, [[PlotPoint it better be important]].

Oh, sure, we can set up a RedHerring or two, but we had better expect the viewer to attach importance to any detail we let loose in the plot. Shame on us, if we later expect the viewer to be surprised by the importance of the detail we let slip.

This is an OmnipresentTrope. There is a fine line between good WorldBuilding, and rambling on about pointless crap -- conservation of detail is all about filtering out irrelevant information to highlight the actual plot or interesting aspects of the setting. It is rare for an author to devote thirty pages of description to a character's choice of clothing, unless those choices provide great insight into a character or are being used as a metaphor for the human condition.

When a medium has less time to tell a complete story, conservation of detail tends to be particularly pronounced. A TV show (with 25 or 50 minutes to complete a story) spends less time on details than a movie, which in turn has to provide fewer details than a comic book, and so on. How come people on TV always find a [[RockstarParking parking spot]] right outside their destination? Why [[TravellingAtTheSpeedOfPlot aren't people shown actually traveling]] between destinations? How can a couple plan a date without discussing pertinent details? Why do high school classes never seem to last more than three on-air minutes? This is why.

Video games have their own version of this law, in that any detail in the game requires a significant investment of time and manpower to develop between art asset creation, writing, programming, and insertion into the game. Details of lesser importance get economized: One-off [=NPCs=] rarely ever get anything more than a [[OnlySixFaces generic sprite or character model]], have only the most generic walking animations, and have [[NominalImportance no name]]. You can tell that a character will play some role in the plot if they have an unusually complex character model or a headshot next to their dialog (unless plenty of other characters share that same headshot). Plotwise, this serves to separate [[RoundCharacter Round]] and {{Flat Character}}s. Since artists create video game worlds from scratch, scenery also obeys the law. Say they set a level in a supermarket; a real supermarket stocks ''thousands'' of individual products in ''hundreds'' of different brands, each and every one with different label designs, and the time it would take to design (or license) all that packaging and trademarks could easily add up to several games' worth of development cycles. So they use a handful of designs over and over. And it works to their favor: We accept less detail because it is not central to the game.

This trope has probably caused more EpilepticTrees than every other trope combined, DyingDream notwithstanding, as people ''expect'' things to have a reason. Conversely, issues that are not fully explored due to the constraints of this trope often make for good {{Deconstruction}} material later on.

Sometimes we see the payoff for a detail later, but we are still not done with it: it will prove to be important in a different way later still: the writers have used ChekhovsBoomerang. The predominant use of ChekhovsBoomerang is to let the writers surprise you.

Any time a critic or a fan refers to something as "gratuitous", whether that be an obvious narrative tangent, a scene of extended violence, a sex scene, a comic relief scene, an extended bout of SceneryPorn, etc., they are invoking this trope. However, in this context it is very subjective: one viewer's porn is another viewer's necessary character development; one viewer's "boring five-minute long tracking shot of a beautiful mountain range" is another viewer's "this is not a movie, it's art."

For the drawing equivalent of this trope, see RuleOfAnimationConservation. For the nonhuman equivalent, see RuleOfPersonificationConservation. When writers deliberately take advantage of this trope to overwhelm and confuse audiences, see TheWalrusWasPaul. When a work flouts this trope and contains lots of little asides that are not necessary, that is NarrativeFiligree.

This trope is responsible for OneDegreeOfSeparation, AlwaysOnDuty, EveryoneIsRelated, NamelessNarrative, NominalImportance, and sometimes WhatHappenedToTheMouse. When an adaptation removes explanatory details to save time or attention, see AdaptationExplanationExtrication. When the creators of an interactive work account for an absurd amount of obscure variations or things the player might do in a detailed way, that is DevelopersForesight. When the characters are exactly where they need to be, when they need to be, in order to move the story forward, it's a collaboration between Conservation of Detail and the AnthropicPrinciple. Combine this with RuleOfSymbolism, and you get EveryoneIsJesusInPurgatory.

See also ChekhovsGun, ChekhovsGunman, and UniquenessValue.

'''Warning: Examples may contained unmarked spoilers.'''

----!!Examples

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]* The ''Manga/AttackOnTitan'' anime compresses a lot of manga into 25 episodes, so even seemingly insignificant details are likely to be important or hint at future reveals. For example, paying very close attention to the actions of [[spoiler: Annie, Bertolt, and Reiner]] reveals some subtle foreshadowing about their true nature. * ''Manga/{{Bakuman}}'' has Mashiro and Takagi using a trick to create an illusion of this in their manga: they reread what they've written so far and spin {{story arc}}s and ideas out of off-hand comments and the like.* Subverted in episode 2 of ''Manga/DeathNote''. Light spends a good chunk of the episode setting up and explaining an elaborate safety mechanism to hide his notebook, and it never comes up again. Instead, the pay-off is more immediate: it gives the audience [[EstablishingCharacterMoment a quick introduction]] to [[CrazyPrepared Light's personality]].** In the manga, when he notices that someone (the people who installed the cameras) entered his room from the state of his no less elaborate door safety mechanism, he infers that they didn't find the notebook because the fire trap didn't go off. His solution to the problem of the cameras is considerably less elaborate. "Hey Ryuk. Go find the cameras and I'll give you some apples."* Football manga ''Manga/{{Eyeshield 21}}'' does this with every team the main characters go up against. Except for the protagonist's team, every team consists of a few dozen generic nameless players whose faces are usually hidden behind their helmets and two or three important named characters. The latter are inevitably the stars who make all the big plays. You can tell how important a team will be to the story by how many players get names; the first team they play, for example, gets one named player, and after that game they never impact the plot again. Meanwhile, important recurring rival teams get five or six named players, plus coaching staff.* Subverted in ''Manga/{{Hellsing}}''. Tubalcain Alhambra is introduced as an important character, with an eccentric personality and even having a nickname...and is killed a few minutes later.* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''LightNovel/HaiyoreNyarkoSan'', in a story arc where a time-traveling alien [[GrandTheftMe borrows the body of the main characters' classmate]], in order to track down a criminal from her own time period. The next day, we find out that another classmate called in sick. Nyarko suggests that the criminal stole his body; however, both she and Mahiro laugh at how insanely contrived that would be...and so naturally, she's 100% correct. It even diverges into ConversationalTroping, with Nyarko dubbing this idea "the Law of Important Characters".* ''Franchise/MahouSenseiNegima'' has a lot.** The shaking of hands of Theo and Ricardo. There are four important people in the picture. The two foremost people are the Princess of Hellas and a Megalomesembrian Senator and the other two are the Captain of the Ardiane Knights and [[spoiler: WildCard politician Kurt Godel.]]** Chizuru's membership in the astronomy club.** Makie's lack of worries about life turn out to have plot relevance later on.** Ala Alba symbol appears repeatedly dozens of chapters before the group is officially formed.** When the series is still [[GettingCrapPastTheRadar pretending to be]] a standard harem series -- every once in a while we see some of the more supernatural girls (mostly [[{{Ninja}} Kaede]], [[OurVampiresAreDifferent Eva]], [[RobotGirl Chachamaru]], [[NinjaPirateZombieRobot Chao]], and [[HunterOfHerOwnKind Setsuna]]) just sitting off to on the sidelines, since they don't have any interest in such silly activities.* ''Manga/OnePiece''** There is a short arc about a giant whale who had been waiting for fifty years for its pirate friends. It ended and was never mentioned again, and everything could have just been another [[TearJerker sad but heartwarming episode]]. Then, more or less three hundred chapters later, [[spoiler:a guy pops out, and surprise!, he was part (actually the last survivor) of that pirate crew. And he ended up joining the main hero's crew.]]** Lots of old characters, mainly villains, from [[spoiler:Buggy to Mr. 3 and Crocodile]], were freed from Impel Down and became decisive to plot development. To the amazement of the readers: [[spoiler:Silvers Rayleigh, the right hand of the Pirate King Gold Roger, appeared.]] If you check carefully, his face had ''already been shown'' in a ''single panel'' of a ''side flashback'' almost five hundred chapters before.** A long time ago in a flashback, Montblanc Norland is shown mentioning he once visited a land of midgets when his "story" was being explained. Just one mention. In a real life re-iteration of the original story of Montblanc. '''Over four hundred chapters later''', we see the Tontatta Kingdom in Dressrosa, ''inhabited by dwarves'', '''with a statue of Montblanc Norland in the plaza of their small city'''. * ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' utilizes this trope to the full extent. Every single character actions that were shown will have some kind of significant effect. [[spoiler: One best example would be Mayuri's Metal Oopa from episode 1. 22 episodes later it was revealed that the Oopa set off the metal detector at the airport, preventing Dr. Nakabachi from boarding the plane that was fated to crash.]]* Inverted in ''Manga/YuYuHakusho'' when Kurama and Hiei are introduced. They, along with another youkai, get into trouble with Spirit World, who only seems to have data on the one with the least relevance to the series as a whole.* In ''Manga/TwentiethCenturyBoys'', perhaps the ''only'' thing that doesn't gain major significance later in the plot is the seven year old son of one of the protagonists.* ''Manga/{{Bleach}}'' is loaded to the brim with this if one looks close enough at the story.** When Ichigo first reveals he's been given the Shinigami Representative Badge, something immediately bothers Uryuu about it and Sado comments it comes across as disapproval more than approval. Then Ichigo shows the badge to Zennosuke, who claims he's never heard of such a thing. [[spoiler:Three hundred chapters later, it's revealed the badge's true purpose is to monitor and restrict a Substitute Shinigami just in case they ever became a danger to Soul Society.]]** Chapter 7 has Isshin mention the Hospital's Director would do anything for him, implying either friendship, some kind of debt, or both. Two hundred chapters later, the Hospital Director is revealed to be Uryuu's father, Ryuuken. Chapter 241 confirms Isshin and Ryuuken know each other. Isshin's surprise at Ryuuken's [[UsefulNotes/JapaneseHonorifics unusual greeting]] indicates "Kurosaki" is not Isshin's original name; Ryuuken's knowledge of Isshin being a Shinigami who lost his powers indicates they've known each other for at least twenty years, as Isshin lost his power twenty years ago; the conversation hints they've been grooming their sons for some unspecified future reason, and that they both dislike what's going on. [[spoiler:Three hundred chapters later, a flashback mini-arc reveals that the circumstances of how they met centred around Aizen's Hollowfication experiments which accidentally victimised Ryuuken's cousin, Ichigo's Quincy mother. Isshin sacrifices his Shinigami power to save her and when he later marries her, he changes his surname from Shiba to Masaki's surname, Kurosaki. Oh, and that the story's latest BigBad is the Quincy Progenitor who can steal the power and life from Quincies whenever he wants, and that there's been a prophecy throughout Quincy history that the BigBad would reclaim his power on a specified date that Isshin has had at least nine years advanced warning to prepare for.]]** Ichigo's strange Hollowfication while in battle with Ulquiorra turns him into a fully hollowfied humanoid being that cannot speak, can telekinetically summon Zangetsu and which is more powerful than a top-level Espada. Later, Aizen notes the reiatsu Ichigo has developed as a result of that fight and reveals he's known about Ichigo since he was born. Then it's revealed Fullbringers are created by unborn children inheriting Hollow reiatsu from mothers that have survived attacks. Eventually, flashbacks reveals how Isshin lost his power due to one of Aizen's Hollowfication experiments taking an unexpected twist. [[spoiler:White is a Hollowfied shinigami soul designed to target Shinigami for Hollowfication. While in battle with Isshin, it detects a nearby Quincy and discards the Shinigami in favour of the Quincy. Masaki is Hollowfied instead. Aizen is shocked and excited by this strange turn. Masaki's Hollowfication is passed on to Ichigo before he's born and the Hollowfication that defeated Ulquiorra was, with only minor differences, White.]]** Zangetsu never teaches Ichigo how to grow stronger as a Shinigami, calling forth the inner Hollow to do it instead. His only direct lesson consists of reishi manipulation. He draws Ichigo into his inner world by cloaking him in shadow. The inner Hollow sometimes taunts Ichigo with claims that he is the real Zangetsu. [[spoiler:[[BigBad Yhwach's]] reveal has him [[OnlySixFaces looking like]] a slightly older Zangetsu, right down to the flowing black cape, transporting his Quincies by cloaking them in shadow. It's eventually revealed that "Zangetsu" is really Ichigo's Quincy power manifesting in the shape of the Quincy Progenitor, Yhwach, and the inner Hollow is his real Shinigami power.]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Comic Books]]* Used to good effect in Jeff Smith's ''ComicBook/{{Bone}}''. A map that Smiley Bone finds by random chance in the first issue ends up [[spoiler: triggering a chain of memories in Thorn that leads to the eventual climax of the series.]]* Parodied in ''ComicBook/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagicIDW''. Pinkie claims that since she lugged those [[{{Hammerspace}} "bulky"]] costumes all the way from Ponyville, they ''have'' to be useful at some point in the quest. [[spoiler:While Rainbow's costume never serves a meaningful purpose, Pinkie's costume is animated to keep an eye on the Changelings after their defeat]].** Could double as ChekhovsGag, considering the fact that both times before the climax it's brought up, it's for humor purposes.* Dropped all over the place in ''ComicBook/TheSandman''. Seemingly minor details end up being plot-centric on a second read.** The seemingly innocuous phrase "I have my responsibilities..." that Morpheus is fond of invoking early and often in the series ends up being such an integral statement of his personality that he [[spoiler: would rather die than abandon his realm]].** Early in the series, Desire says in a seeming throwaway line that s/he'll "Bring the Kindly Ones down" on Morpheus. That's precisely what happens, though not in the way Desire planned.* In one early ''ComicStrip/KnightsOfTheDinnerTable'' story, the group decides that a cow mentioned as a random background detail must be significant, until [[GameMaster B.A.]] gives up and [[ThrowItIn declares that the cow is magical]].** And in another story, they start collecting ''everything'' in the dungeon, down to random bits of junk, because they have a BagOfHolding and can sort it all out later.** They later do the same when B.A. mentions a Gazebo. Not knowing what it was, the players thought it sounded like the name of a monster and battled it to the death. Gets a callback years later when the team lists a Gazebo carcass in their inventory.[[note]]To be fair they're playing an Expy of ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' so even if they knew what a Gazebo was, that wouldn't rule it out as a monster. [[/note]][[/folder]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]* In [[FanFic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed Equestria: A History Revealed]], you can count on a lot of the asides and jokes in the fic to come back one way or another, whether in [[BrickJoke another joke]] or actually having a role in Equestrian history. However, given the [[InsaneTrollLogic clear insanity]] of the LemonyNarrator, the validity of the latter is quite questionable.** A one-off mention of the game Yahtzee is expanded into a massive cover-up on the absence of Princess Luna and the guards during the Changeling invasion, with the narrator going as far to cite a pair of dice found in Luna's bedroom as evidence of this.* Played with in ''FanFic/HarryPotterAndTheNatural20.'' Milo, an [[GenreSavvy RPG veteran,]] claims to be able to identify the significance of a character based on how many adjectives they have: for instance, he looks at [[TheMole Quirrell]], counts 'jumpy', 'wears a turban,' 'stutters,' and 'smells funny,' and immediately identifies him as very important. This [[WrongGenreSavvy backfires]] when [[FakeUltimateHero Lockhart]] forces him to answer hundreds of minute trivia questions about his life, causing Milo to conclude that Lockhart is the centerpiece of the story. Turns out he's just a narcissist.* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'' plays this straight, mostly. Every teeny tiny detail, including ones that you've missed may well be significant, and may boomerang back over 70 chapters late but... the author has cheerfully admitted that the difference between 'hint' and 'red herring' largely depends on his mood; he's prone to adding/tweaking things and very occasionally forgets things entirely.* A lot of seemingly unimportant details from the earliest parts of the [[Fanfic/{{Cinderjuice}} Contractually Obligated Chaos]] series become more significant as the series continues; it's particularly true of the second story, as the first was intended to be a stand-alone. It crosses into DominoRevelation territory when the Fairy Godfather reveals that many of these details, along with details from the [[WesternAnimation/{{Beetlejuice}} source material]], factor into his thought process regarding TheProphecy.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'': the ''moment'' Edna Mode starts making a big deal about capes being caught in things, you know that someone else is going to experience a very fatal wardrobe malfunction by movie's end... unless you've read ''Comicbook/{{Watchmen}}'', in which case you might write it off as a ShoutOut. The costume for the baby [[spoiler:can survive a wide range of extremes, all of which the baby exhibits near the end.]]* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Megamind}}'' there are [[spoiler: several single frames where the hero isn't in the trap,]] which all become revealed to be important later.* Used masterfully in ''WesternAnimation/{{Rango}}'', the climax of the film has the title character use a ChekhovsArmoury to [[spoiler: defeat the mayor and save the town.]]* ''Disney/{{Frozen}}'': Used extensively in the first act, [[http://johnaugust.com/2014/scriptnotes-ep-128-frozen-with-jennifer-lee-transcript per Jennifer Lee]]. With a fairly complex, multi-protagonist story and only 90 minutes to work with, the filmmakers intentionally left out some side details to focus on the heart of the story. Why does Elsa have powers? She was born with them; no further explanation offered. What did Elsa do all those years? Aside from a couple shots of her outside her room to show she wasn't a prisoner, we get nothing. Who runs the kingdom for the three years before Elsa's coronation? No time for that. Lee confesses that, while the film intentionally subverts Disney/princess story/fairy tale tropes, it also uses some (e.g. a princess falls in love at first sight for a handsome prince) as shortcuts to deal with the 90-minute constraint.** Done using singing, of all things, to foreshadow the villain. How do you show [[spoiler: Prince Hans]] is not who they appear to be? [[spoiler: Have them sing a romantic duet about how much they love and are in sync with someone, but have them do things like come in late on their part or clearly not anticipate what the other is about to say or what movement they're about to make. This from ''Disney,'' who will go the extra mile for perfect singing and in an animated film, where every movement is intentional.]] That's right, [[spoiler: the love song being imperfect]] was foreshadowing. [[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]* Used very well in ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', which disguised its plot points as jokes.* ''Film/TheBigLebowski'' takes this trope and throws a coffee mug at it.* ''Film/CitizenKane'' - Playing with this trope is arguably the main conceit: it's a movie about the impossibility of finding the right details. "Rosebud" is an example, as is the famous "girl in the white dress" speech.* In ''Film/TheDarkKnightRises'', when Bruce Wayne and Miranda Tate share a moment in the Wayne Manor, you'll see her bare back and for a brief moment, the camera pauses on a scar that she's got there... [[spoiler: a not-so-subtle hint that she's got something harsh in her past.]]* Used to create tension in the final battle of ''Film/IronMan''. When Tony creates his original power generator, he observes that it could run "something big for 15 minutes." [[spoiler: When he is forced to use his original generator after Stane steals his improved model, there is a literal deadline for Iron Man -- if he does not beat Ironmonger in less than 15 minutes, he will run out of power ''and'' his heart will stop.]]** Also, the "icing problem."* Parodied in ''Film/KissKissBangBang'', when the narrator sarcastically points out the importance of a conversation in his story.-->'''Harry:''' I'm so sorry. That was a terrible scene. It's like, why was that in the movie? You think it'll come back later? Hmmm...* In the German movie ''Film/TheLivesOfOthers'', when the main character hides his typewriter (he was writing anti-government pieces in Eastern Germany), he notices that his fingertips were covered with the red ink he used. At the end of the movie, [[spoiler:he finds the reports of the man who was spying on him, and notices two red fingertips next to his code name, showing him who saved his ass earlier in the movie by hiding his typewriter.]]* All the ''Franchise/{{Saw}}'' franchise, especially the [[Film/SawI first one]] (remember when Jigsaw mentioned having a disease?). The last thirty seconds of each installment usually review such details and make the audience feel proud or ashamed depending on whether they'd realized it previously or not.* Done exceedingly well in ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'', ''Film/HotFuzz'', and ''Film/TheWorldsEnd'' (made by the same people), in which almost every line of dialogue either [[{{Foreshadowing}} foreshadows]] what's to come or gets [[MeaningfulEcho repeated in a meaningful way]] or as a ''BrickJoke''.* In ''Film/ShaunOfTheDead'' when Ed attempts to cheer Shaun up at the Winchester with plans of binge drinking, he is actually summarizing the events of the next day. ** "Bloody Mary" [[spoiler: The zombie checkout girl named Mary]]** "Bite at the king's head"[[spoiler:Phillip getting bitten]]** "Couple" [[spoiler:David and Di]]** "Little Princess"[[spoiler:Liz]]** "Stab the monkey" [[spoiler: impale a zombie with a tether ball pole.]]** "Stagger back" [[spoiler: acting like zombies]]** "Bar For Shots" is [[spoiler: going back to the Winchester and firing the rifle]]. * ''Film/{{Timecrimes}}''. From the moment Clara appears on-screen, pay attention. Any detail that seems out-of-place will get explained or otherwise become an important plot point.* ''Film/WaynesWorld'' lampshaded this trope mercilessly with Chris Farley's unusually knowledgeable security guard.--> '''Wayne:''' Isn't it lucky that we got all this information? It seemed extraneous at the time.* In ''Film/SupermanII'', Super brings Lois to the Fortress of Solitude, and shows here the green crystal that built it. When she goes to dinner, she leaves it in the snow where she was sitting, with the camera lingering on it for an extra second. Gee, wonder what helps Clark get back his powers later?* Averted in most of the work of Quentin Tarrantino, who has an uncanny preference for long dialogues scenes that don't affect the plot (like for example the lengthy foot massage conversation in PulpFiction).* In-universe example in ''Film/TheDraughtsmansContract''. Mr. Neville insists on drawing everything exactly as he sees it, and therefore demands that nothing be moved, altered, or disturbed to preserve continuity. When items start showing up in places they should not be in his drawings (such as a ladder leaning against a wall and an abandoned pair of boots in a field), characters start suspecting that something is amiss.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Literature]]* This is rather ''infamously'' "subverted" by pretty much all of the works of Creator/JRRTolkien, almost to the point of it being memetic; it's not at all unusual in his works for there to be several pages of tangential activity that seemingly has nothing to do with the rest of the plot whatsoever. But to some extent, it's left up to the reader to determine what exactly constitutes as "important" in the greater lore of his work. For instance, his work TheSilmarillion could by some people be easily misconstrued as a book of ''nothing but'' such unnecessary fluff, but in reality it serves as the entire body of ancient Elvish history spanning back to the creation of the world (and fans sometimes appropriately refer to it as the "Elvish Bible" as a result), and that "fluff" provides considerable insight into the context of the Elves' existence, their culture, and even their worldviews which tend to differ considerably from that of Men or Dwarves, and doesn't often get extrapolated upon in his other, [[LordOfTheRings more]] [[TheHobbit famous]] works, which feature only light brushes with the Elves that leave readers/viewers with a stark impression of their strange ways but no real understanding of it. And needless to say, considering his works are essentially the primordial ooze from which was birthed modern HighFantasy, no detail is truly unimportant in hindsight.* ''Literature/BagOfBones'': In ''On Writing'', Stephen King describes reducing a two page section on Mike Noonan's community-service work backstory to two paragraphs after his wife said it was boring.* In ''Literature/ABrothersPrice'' most things end up being relevant to the plot, and if they aren't, they are there for exposition, such as showing the reader how this SpeculativeFiction fantasy world works, or to establish a character. * ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig Zags]] this so much it can make readers' heads spin. Westeros is [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters a very, very big kingdom in an even bigger world]], and almost from the start we're given a whole mess of names belonging to people, organizations, families, deities, stories and locations, such that any first-time reader without a photographic memory or a notebook will be hard-pressed to remember who's who, even with the [[AllThereInTheManual convenient appendix]] in the back. In addition, the multiple POV characters and the people around them have many distinct priorities and focuses; the characters in the first book alone have concerns that range from [[ConspiracyTheorist national]] (or even [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt worldwide]]) security to [[WrongGenreSavvy whether they'll get to attend an extravagant tournament]]. This enables the characters (read: the author) to slip all kinds of relevant information to and past each other (read: the reader) without them realizing it until it's too late. After all, with [[NeedleInAStackOfNeedles so much information]], [[ChekhovsArmoury anything can turn out to be relevant]] [[{{Foreshadowing}} when the crucial details]] [[RedHerring are mixed so neatly with the worldbuilding]]. Even characters that had previously only appeared in the Appendixes can turn out to be important.** For example, [[spoiler:Jon Connington is an exiled lord mentioned in passing as having drunk himself to death. He later turns to be alive, becomes a POV character, and leads an attack to put a HiddenBackupPrince, Aegon Targaryen, who was believed to have died 15 years before the books began, on the throne.]]** Even the History of the world is important, such as figures in ''The Tales of Dunk and Egg'' and ''The World of Ice and Fire''. The Blackfyres are a cadet Targaryen branch who tried to usurp the throne several times. They feature prominently in the history and are a significant threat in ''Dunk and Egg'', along with being mentioned a few times in the main series, but are believed extinct. [[spoiler:It is not yet confirmed but it is widely believed the boy believed to be Aegon is really descended from the Blackfyres, hence why the Golden Company is supporting him; Illyrio Mopatis tellingly says the Blackfyres are extinct in the male line.]]** Notable aversions usually are the PoV characters from the prologues and epilogues of the book. They are introduced exclusively for one chapter, get more characterization than plenty of other authors give actual main characters, and then are unceremoniously killed off; with neither their lives nor their deaths having much bearing on the overall plot.* In ''Literature/TheBelgariad'' by Creator/DavidEddings:** In the historical-perspective prologues of the very first book, ''Pawn of Prophecy'', mention [[spoiler:the High Places of Korim, which are no more]] in passing as the location Torak did some stuff... only for [[spoiler:it to be the solution to one of the last mysteries of the sequel series ''The Malloreon'']] ''10 books later.''** At the beginning of ''Pawn of Prophecy'', the first book, the old storyteller brings out [[spoiler: a story only to be told in the presence of royalty, even though he's in an ordinary (though pretty wonderful) farm, and glances at Garion]]. Lo and behold, halfway through the fourth book [[spoiler: Garion is crowned the Rivan King.]] The old storyteller, being Belgarath himself, knew the entire time.** Also in ''Pawn of Prophecy'', Garion mentions to Belgarath in a throwaway line that [[spoiler:a fortuneteller once came to Faldor's farm and told Durnik the blacksmith that he would die twice]]. Funnily enough, in book 5, [[spoiler:Durnik dies and is resurrected a chapter or two later. One down, one to go.]].* Ignored in Creator/JoeHaldeman's ''The Coming''. The story follows a lot of characters, most of which ultimately do nothing for the plot. (Seriously, there was even a porn actress thrown in.)* ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo'': Averted big-time.* In the Franchise/DoctorWhoExpandedUniverse novel ''Dead Romance'' lives on this. This is used to great effect because the first three-quarters of the book is written like a regular New Adventure, which are notorious for having bad editing and poor writing. Therefore you have long passages of text that go nowhere, ham-handed movements from set piece to set piece and so on. However at a crucial point you discover that everything you were supposed to ignore and chalk up to bad writing was extremely important, and then you see what's really been going on for the entire novel. There's a reason this novel was continually voted the best Series/DoctorWho spin-off novel of all time.* Literature/DonQuixote: This law is invoked by the [[ThePresentsWereNeverFromSanta Innkeeper]] when he and Don Quixote discuss at Part I Chapter III the need for money being a KnightErrant who is WalkingTheEarth, and helps to deconstruct those tropes:--> He asked if he had any money with him, to which Don Quixote replied that [[AvertedTrope he had not a farthing, as in the histories of knights-errant he had never read of any of them carrying any]]. [[TheLawOfConservationOfDetail On this point the landlord told him he was mistaken; for, though not recorded in the histories, because in the author's opinion there was no need to mention anything so obvious and necessary as money and clean shirts,]] [[FridgeLogic it was not to be supposed therefore that they did not carry them,]] and he might regard it as certain and established that all knights-errant (about whom there were so many full and unimpeachable books) carried well-furnished purses in case of emergency, and likewise carried shirts and a little box of ointment to cure the wounds they received.* ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', GOOD GOD! Every trope on ThisIndexWillBeImportantLater appears in the later books. And each time it is fully fleshed out.* One of ''Literature/{{Gor}}''s criticisms is that John Norman averts this with densely worded depictions of structures, ships, weapons, down to counting the beams and explaining their practical and cultural significance. He also subverts this, as one detail buried in several dry paragraphs can come back as a plot point or a BrickJoke that will go over the heads of readers who skip those portions.* ''Literature/HarryPotter'':** The series is rife with pleasant background detail, but Rowling very carefully seeds important plotline clues into trivial mentions. Hagrid got a flying motorbike from "young Sirius Black" in chapter one of book one; in book three, Sirius Black becomes an important part of the plot. Other worldbuilding items, like "goblin wars" mentioned in history books, or the idea that Hogwarts itself will give help to those who need it, tend to come back in a big way later on.** Hilariously subverted with the offscreen Mark Evans, whose surname is also Harry's mum's maiden name. Long-lost relative? Nope, Rowling just needed a common surname for someone Dudley had beaten up and didn't realize until the fans did. She later issued a tongue-in-cheek apology.* Subverted repeatedly in Hawthorne's ''The House Of The Seven Gables''.* Geoph Essex's ''Lovely Assistant'' throws a dozen or so random throwaway lines at the reader on almost every page, but paying close attention to the dialogue (especially in conversations with [[spoiler:Vincent and Carrie Raymond]]) will pay off in spades. Also, the [[DistantFinale final chapter]] wraps up a surprising number of minor details and even minor moments from the rest of the book, in particular [[spoiler:the things Jenny sees in the theatre lobby from Wonderland after she and Calvin do their last magic show together]].* Subverted in the book series ''Literature/PersonalEffects.'' The main gimmick of the series is that it encourages the reader to follow up on details mentioned in the books - calling the phone numbers gives you voicemails, and all the websites actually exist. The first printed book even comes packaged with a bunch of handwritten notes and pictures.* At the end of ''Literature/{{Redshirts}}'', [[spoiler: Andrew Dahl figures out that one of his friends, to that point, had been a completely pointless character who had done little, if anything, to further the plot, and had just been along for the ride while all the other characters did all the work. Dahl therefore figured out that his friend must solely exist in the story in order to tell Dahl that he was the main character of the book. He was right.]]* If someone is invited to a banquet in ''RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'', then chances are that it's part of a plan to kill them. Most of the banquets without murderous intent go unmentioned, leaving modern readers to wonder why anyone would be stupid enough to go to a banquet in the first place.* Played with in the ''Literature/ThursdayNext'' series. All works of 'fiction' exist in AnotherDimension: a world grounded in Conservation of Detail. Fictional characters who enter the real world sometimes suffer sensory overload, because all their senses are ''continuously'' registering details. Reality addiction is not unheard of.** In ''Something Rotten'', Thursday is showing Hamlet around the "real world" when she is almost injured/killed by a random accident. She explains to him that, while in the Book World (fiction), this would certainly turn out to be an important clue to something later on, in the real world, such events are meaningless. Because ''Something Rotten'' is fictional, it does turn out to be an important clue to something later on.* Creator/DouglasAdams is famous for mentioning things in throwaway lines which later turn out to be what the entire plot hinges on.** However, he does a ''fantastic'' subversion in ''Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'' (which is itself a ''book'' of this trope) - there's a scene where the protagonist is looking into a bathroom, and Adams spends several paragraphs describing the contents of the room, the paneling on the walls, the scuffs on the floor, and so forth, in intricate detail, only to end with "There was also a large horse in the room, taking up most of it."** This trope may also have been parodied with a fictional novel that Arthur Dent reads on the planet Bartledan: Due to a plumbing problem that is only briefly mentioned in the second chapter of the novel, the main character abruptly dies in the penultimate chapter (the rest of its precisely 100,000 words are about road-mending).** Adams also explains the use of this trope in ''So Long And Thanks For All The Fish'', stating that "It makes for big fat books such as the American economy thrives on, but it's boring."* PD James' detective novels featuring Adam Dalgleish feature an insane amount of back-story on almost every character. Everything you need to know is in there, but so are an awful lot of things you don't need to know.* Creator/TomClancy tends to fight this tooth and nail. Paragraphs will be spent describing things other authors would just gloss over. He does love his TechnologyPorn.* Very common in the TwoMinuteMysteries (an earlier work by the author of EncyclopediaBrown), where each mystery is only about two pages long. If the text describes a minor detail like how the wax has dribbled on a candle, or the direction of a bird's footprints, it will always be key to the solution.* Similarly to the ''A Song of Ice and Fire'' example above, ''The Literature/MalazanBookOfTheFallen'' [[ZigZaggedTrope zig-zags]] this. A lot of crucial plot details are foreshadowed by subtle details in earlier books, but a lot of things a reader might assume to be [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's Guns]] turn out to have little impact on the plot. This is done deliberately and is one of the reasons the series has such a reputation as a difficult read (the other is the deliberate use of LostInMediasRes).* Parodied in ''Literature/TheMacbethMurderMystery'' by Creator/JamesThurber. The protagonist sets out to deduce who really killed King Duncan in ''Theatre/{{Macbeth}}'' (since it's never the really obvious suspect, so Macbeth must be a RedHerring). He eventually concludes that the murderer was [[spoiler:the unnamed old man in Act II scene 4]], since otherwise why bother introducing a new character just for one scene?[[/folder]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]* Used in crime series in general. Did we randomly learn the victim's brother-in-law works at the airport? Is one suspect bragging about her success as a cosmetics salesperson? The crucial clue will rely on a location or product specific to that job. Do we actually see the person who found the body being interviewed by the police? They're the murderer. Did the camera happen to linger on a CD, or did a character mention the music that was playing at the scene? Listen for it later, it's a way to spot the killer (or a red herring, but either way, listen for it). * ''Series/AustinAndAlly'': In one episode the characters keep getting packages delivered to their businesses, with a joke being about no-one tipping the delivery guy. This takes place almost at random during the main plot about their businesses constantly getting robbed. Take a guess who the thief is.* Averted in particular episode of ''Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. The fourth season finale has a series of interconnected dream sequences, with some kind of monster killing each of the four major characters in their dreams in turn. Also appearing consistently in each dream: a bald, bespectacled man in a tan suit with a strange fascination for cheese. [[WordOfGod Word of God]] states that the sole reason for the "cheese man" was to have one suitably random, nonsensical, dream-like image in each dream. The fact that he appeared in each dream has led to possibly more fan speculation about his purpose and meaning than ''all other facets of the show put together.''* In ''Series/BreakingTheMagiciansCodeMagicsBiggestSecretsFinallyRevealed'' the Masked Magician demonstrates a magic trick and then reveals how it is done. Most of his tricks involve a pretty bare set with both him and his assistants wearing bland costumes. ''Any'' detail beyond this is guaranteed to be part of the secret of the trick. Magician wearing a flowing, hooded robe? He needs to switch places with a [[BodyDouble double]]. Assistant wearing a poofy dress? [[NothingUpMySleeve It's concealing a prop or gimmick]]. Assistant that we haven't seen before? This trick needed an [[TwinSwitch identical twin]]. Extraneous scenery? [[TreeCover Someone is hiding behind it]].* In an episode of ''Series/{{Charmed}}'' Prue finishes talking with someone in her office, that person leaves and then the coffee girl (who we've never seen before) arrives, gives her coffee which had apparently been ordered, receives a compliment, and the scene ends. Yeah. The feeling "why did they just show us a scene of someone receiving coffee" was pretty strong, but it did help remember the coffee/sandwich girl character for when it turned out that, without her knowledge, she was actually [[spoiler: the mother of the person who will eventually find a vaccine for demons]].* Played with in the video game episode of ''Series/{{Community}}''. Upon entering a house, Britta immediately tries to straighten a crooked picture on the wall. Jeff tells her to "stop playing like a girl". Then Britta succeeds, opening a secret passage.* Same for ''CSI'' about everything being a clue.* ''Series/DoctorWho'' exudes this trope.** "Vote Saxon" was one particularly devious detail given, foreshadowing the final arc.** The same thing happened with ArcWords "Bad Wolf".** In the Season Four episode, [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E1PartnersInCrime "Partners in Crime"]], the taxi that was meant to pick up [[spoiler:Stacy, who died from Adipose conversion]] had an ATMOS sticker on the front, foreshadowing [[spoiler:[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E4TheSontaranStratagem "The Sontaran Stratagem"]]]].** It may just be nothing, but in Series 1, Mickey Smith finishes one of Captain Jack's anecdotes for him:--->'''Mickey:''' I ''knew'' we should have [[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E11TurnLeft turned left]]!!** In "Forest of the Dead", Miss Evangelista lampshades the trope to convince Donna that they're in a simulation, pointing out that she appears in different places at different times without actually traveling anywhere.* In Series/{{Eureka}}, any and all interesting new technologies presented or talked about early in the episode is inevitably going to turn out to be either A) part of the cause of that week's crisis, or B) part of the solution to said crisis.* In one episode of ''Series/{{Goosebumps}}'' we see the parents of a kid protagonist working on something. It turns out [[spoiler: it was a device to expose invisible people and the plot had an invisible friend]].* ''Series/HowIMetYourMother'' - A fan theory regarding the identity of the mother relies on this trope. In season 3, Ted [[spoiler: bumps into a girl at a party that he reveals the mother was at. The scene is at most 3 seconds. Ergo, due to conservation of detail, she is the mother.]]** This could be [[SubvertedTrope deliberate misdirection]]. HIMYM regularly utilizes UnreliableNarrator for comic relief purposes, so it's entirely possible that scene isn't how it really happened.** Resolved well. An episode from the mother's point of view shows her outside that party wanting to leave, but her friend saying, "What if you're supposed to bump into your future husband in there, but you're not there to do it? Someone else will bump into him!" Cut to the replay (several seasons earlier) of the three seconds of another girl bumping into Ted.** Another example comes from the reveal of the mother's name. In an early episode, Ted has a conversation with a stripper named Tracy, joking to his kids that this was their mother. The mother's name really is Tracy. * {{Lampshaded}} ''constantly'' on ''Series/JonathanCreek'' in which the titular detective notes apparently pointless bits of general knowledge which become crucial in solving the mystery. At one stage, after ascertaining that an elderly client buys fish-food at a market and getting a baffled look in reply, TheWatson wryly comments: "Don't worry, it'll have some deep significance that is invisible to us mere mortals."** But also quite often averted, as well; especially in the longer episodes where we learn a lot of details about the crime that ultimately turn out to be meaningless. At least once, Jonathan has noted an observation aloud, and when asked what it means, he says he doesn't know. Some of those things simply never get mentioned again.* The ''Series/{{Leverage}}'' team needs to create elaborate schemes in order to manipulate their mark. This means that side comments to the mark often end up being important later, and their importance becomes apparent during the "how it was done" flashback scenes. This is a trait shared with its spiritual predecessor ''Series/{{Hustle}}''.* On an episode of ''Series/{{Merlin}}'', the bad guys kidnap Gaius and take him to an AbandonedMine, where there is an extended shot of their feet walking through the distinctive reddish-brown mud. This becomes an important clue that Merlin uses to deduce where Gaius has been taken, after noticing it on their boots.* Used judiciously on ''Series/{{Monk}}''. Every single random detail comes into use. Character pronounces a word differently? Clue. Has only an aunt for family? Clue. Orange juice jug empty? Clue. Bike comes with a lock? Clue. Meanwhile, the protagonist's skill is noticing and remembering ''everything'', even though he sees more of his world than the viewer and it thus doesn't follow this trope for him. A viewer aware of the trope can still use it to guess the answers before him.* Parodied on the DVD commentary for the final episode of ''Series/TheOfficeUK''. Gervais and Merchant lampshade the "Secret Santa" game, commenting on its apparent insignificance to the plot, and how it ''definitely'' won't become relevant later.* On an episode of ''Series/OnceUponATime'', Kathryn bumps into a character we've never seen before at the school, and the camera dwells for a moment on his confused face. Back in fairytale land, he ends up being her true love: a knight turned into a gold statue, whose face was hidden beneath a visor up until the end of the episode.* The end of the first episode of ''Series/PrettyLittleLiars'' takes time to show every main cast member leaving Alison's Funeral, except for [[spoiler:Mona]]. The A tag at the end then shows A staying behind at the funeral.* ''Series/{{Psych}}'' takes it to a whole new level though, [[SherlockScan by zooming in and highlighting the clue]] (or flashing back 10 seconds to some relevant thing someone said) while Shaun makes his squinty-I-just-saw-a-clue-face (as LampShaded by Gus when he eventually points out that he sees many of the same clues Shaun does, but doesn't need to make a face about it).* ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' did the opposite and focused on silly things (like the parking spots mentioned above), yet it was still funny. ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'' after it, however, was completely made up of small details and barely had anything else, which is why it is awesome.* ''Series/{{Babylon 5}}'' took this to new extremes with throwaway lines and scenes to have huge ramification on the entire series. The best example is an early episode of Delenn getting worried about a 'soul-catcher' in a seemingly filler episode, but is actually the answer to the mystery of the first season recurs throughout the show.* On a time-travelling episode of ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' Clark and Chloe walk through the busy work-space of the Daily Planet in which their colleagues are partaking in some rather noticeable activities: someone gets a huge bouquet of flowers, someone else trips over, and so on. The camera lingers on them the first time around so that Clark can accurately describe their activities to Chloe when the time-travel kicks in and he needs to convince her of their situation (that the day is repeating).* ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' - Played straight during a series regarding the Dominion, which was mentioned in passing in the first episode it showed up in and [[spoiler: was on the verge of taking over the Federation a few seasons later.]]\\\\The extra material on the [=DVDs=] even makes note that they were first mentioned in a Ferengi episode, where fans expect nothing to have a lasting effect.** In the episode Time's Orphan it's done a bit heavy handed when Keiko gives little Molly a shiny silver bracelet and the music swells for a moment before going back to normal. Guess what feral Molly is wearing when they pull her back from the past?* On one episode of [[Series/TwentyFour 24]], Jack is captured and forced to give bad tactical information to CTU. He ends the information by declaring he is in a "flank-two position". Given that the series is all about time constraints, it's reasonable for viewers to assume that any apparently-innocuous dialogue that's not {{technobabble}} is important. In-character, the terrorists holding Jack just assume its standard tactical talk. Naturally, it turns out to be the duress phrase. Except that CTU ''changed'' the duress phrase since Jack was last part of it, and they barely pick up on it before it's too late.* In the mini-series ''Series/{{Whitechapel}}'', the police investigative team occasionally visit the local hospital for information where the camera always takes the time to linger on a red-headed nurse. This being a HistoryRepeats premise concerning a JackTheRipoff, many viewers probably guessed in advance the significance of [[FinalGirl a red-headed woman]]...* On ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' almost invariably someone will make an offhand remark that will trigger Jessica's memory of some minor detail that didn't seem important at the time, but which she suddenly realizes is the key to the whole mystery.** ''Series/{{Castle}}'' is fond of this one as well. Usually it's Castle's daughter or mother who makes the seemingly-innocuous comment.* Lampshaded on an episode of ''Series/RaisingHope''. At the end of a two-parter involving acting on a children's show, the family agrees that their own wacky lives would make for a pretty interesting TV show too... but only if they edited out all the boring parts. Cue a whole minute of the gang staring into space, coughing, and commenting of the shapes of clouds on the drive home.* A sketch from ''Series/ThatMitchellAndWebbLook'' involves a filmmaker who doesn't appreciate this trope, and whose films are constantly full of irrelevant, everyday details which are at best a waste of time and often actively misleading for the audience. They have delicious names such as "Sometimes Fires Go Out" and "The Man Who Has A Cough And It's Just A Cough And He's Fine".[[/folder]]

[[folder:Music]]* Writing lyrics involves fitting rhythms into bars which, as one can expect, doesn't give much space to convey information. For example, one can fit eight syllables (in this case quavers) into one bar which tend to get syncopated due to vocal infections. It's much better to say something like "Hair of fire, crouched much higher/than anyone on the ground" than "Hair the deepest shade of ginger/quite the fearless ninja/towering above you and me/crouching high; defying gravity". We know from the first example that this is someone who is being sneaky and out of sight. The second example, while providing extra detail and feeling, is two bars longer than the first and doesn't really provide any more useful information. In a lyrical sense over-providing detail, as in the second example, is tantamount to PurpleProse.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Puppet Shows]]* On ''Series/ThePajanimals'', the Pajanimals don't appear to have teeth except when they brush them.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' occasionally uses this trope to explain why all the magic and gear seems designed for folks crawling into caverns, killing ugly people, and taking their stuff. The local magicians probably do make magical plows to help farmers, magical compasses for navigators, and so on. However, since players don't care about most of this stuff most of the time, let's cut back to the stuff that will affect the world as players experience it.** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'' outright states this in its campaign setting.** Several articles in Dragon Magazine have been dedicated to listing such mundane magic items.* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'' recommends that {{Game Master}}s occasionally roll the dice for no reason other than making the players nervous. It's a detail: it must be important!* ''Risus'' too in order to help with improvising off what the players speculate the roll was for.* A very common mistake for new {{Game Master}}s who will vaguely describe a room, but go into minute detail about one feature of the room. All GenreSavvy players will immediately gravitate towards this item. This can also be used [[PaintingTheMedium intentionally]], by only describing a certain part of, or item in the area, you can [[EnforcedMethodActing ensure that]] [[SchmuckBait everyone notices it]].* One RPG group went by the tenet that 'Any woman or plant the GM bothers to describe is a trap.' The GM caught on and ran them through an adventure that could roughly be described as 'The Magic Greenhouse Land of Amazons'.* Similarly, whenever the DM makes a hidden roll or asks for a spot or listen check (that they fail), the players will assume something is going on and, if they're bad metagamers, try to act on it. Incidentally, few things unnerve a player as much as rolling really well on a spot check and being told, "No, you don't see anything of importance..."* An article detailed strategies for [=GMs=] who had forgotten their notes, with advice such as asking the players one by one to describe the contents of their characters' living spaces, specifically asking about the presence of potted plants. By the time the last boring description was out of the way, the GM should have been able to think up a new adventure for the evening. Which, if the GM was being sadistic, should offer the characters the chance to buy potted plants, leading the players to wonder if it would save their necks to have potted plants, or if it would put them at risk...[[/folder]]

[[folder:Video Games]]* ''VideoGame/AceCombat'':** ''VideoGame/AceCombat04ShatteredSkies'' mission "Deep Strike" is set in an area with a ravine leading from the target area back to the RTB line. After splashing the targets, you get notice that Stonehenge is firing your way and have to take your plane below 2000 feet in order to make it out of the area. The only way to do that? Why, the ravine. (This scenario is later reused in the ''VideoGame/AceCombatInfinity'' mission "Rescue," serving as one of many [[WholePlotReference deliberate narrative parallels]].) It also shows up in the "Megalith" mission. Those other missiles within reach aren't just for show. Another cue is in the briefing: If you pay attention to the map, you'll see that the mission site is in Stonehenge's range.** ''VideoGame/AceCombatXSkiesOfDeception'' is also in love with this. It's particularly obvious after you play both halves -- or, in one case, all three thirds -- of a RemixedLevel. Most of them.* In ''VideoGame/AmnesiaTheDarkDescent'' there are many many books and shelves full of books but there are only about five book models in the engine. However they are often cunningly arranged on the shelves to give the illusion, albeit paper-thin, of variety. In fact it's not something you really notice, what with trying to keep from being eaten by monsters, until you have to solve a [[BookcasePassage bookshelf puzzle]] fairly early in the game. [[spoiler: The books you have to pull to open the secret passage are all tall, thick, protrude farther out on the shelf than the other books, and are white (whereas every other book in the game is either red, blue, green, or brown) making them incredibly easy to spot ''even without any light''. It's a bit disappointing because the in-game dialogue sets it up as something really challenging.]]. After that, it's hard ''not'' to notice it.* In ''VideoGame/ArTonelico2'', you can tell which characters are important to the plot because they have full-body pictures used when they speak; everybody else has only a small sprite. This leads to strange situations like a visible character speaking to an "invisible" one, or [[EarlyBirdCameo identifying a character that turns out to be very important later]] during an otherwise innocuous scene.* Played with in ''[[VideoGame/CastlevaniaChroniclesOfSorrow Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow]]'', where there are a good number of rooms in the castle that feature a regular enemy that can be found in other places, and with no powerups or unique drops or secrets. One room contains a Killer Fish, out of water, helplessly laying on it's back. They're not entirely useless as they're intended to be a free spot to farm a soul the developers knew would come in handy for the area (the Killer Fish soul, for example, is ''extremely'' helpful in that area of the castle) but aren't entirely necessary either as you can very easily find said souls elsewhere.* Subverted in ''VideoGame/ChronoCross''. Of the portraits that characters have, forty of them are playable characters, five of them are alternate versions of the playable characters, and twenty six of them are [=NPCs=]. Of the [=NPCs=], one is unimportant: a shopkeeper you meet early on. Throughout the game you become convinced she'll be important, but she never does, being the only one of the LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters who isn't.\\\\The shopkeeper, however, is ''related'' to Funguy. Every single NPC with a character portrait seems to be related to one of the [=PCs=].* Averted in the ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' series, there's dozens of characters you can talk to that have no impact on the plot and serve no purpose, and there's lots of virtual books that are interesting to read but don't really serve any actual purpose.* RPG Classic ''VideoGame/DivineDivinity'' takes this trope and uses a sledgehammer to destroy it. It contains innumerable amounts of plot-unrelated or useless things like kitchen ware, pictures, junk and all sorts of other things that can be bought or sold for no reason or moved around yet not used for anything useful. It also contains a lot of [[InGameNovel books]], most of which are highly entertaining short stories and at least two longer series, one about an Ork pirate and his adventures. Others show spells and demon summoning or are about the ingame world, describing plants, animals and monsters.* In ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOrigins'', if a party member didn't have an approval bar he wouldn't be a permanent party member.* Subverted in ''VideoGame/DragonAgeOriginsAwakening'' where they introduced Mhairi, a potential Grey Warden. Before the game got released she got treated the same as any other character, receiving her own trailer and character page. When you play the game, she has an approval bar and can gain XP. All this trouble [[spoiler:only for her to die during the Joining after the opening segment.]]* This is similar to the character of Ling in ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoChinatownWars'' who was prominently featured in promotional material, has a spot on the box cover, and has her own character bio at the official website, so it's a bit surprising that she's killed off as soon as you meet her.* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'':** Subverted with the world map: it's a fairly large place, but not all of it is covered with interesting things. A lot of the dead-ends are covered in item gathering points, and eventually you find maps to grottoes, randomly-generated dungeons that are invisible on the world map until you "search" them with the A button. However, most of these grottoes rarely stray far from the beaten path, and a noticeable amount of areas on the world map end up never becoming the slightest bit notable. The Eastern Stornway area is particularly empty; the enemy encounters there are nearly identical to the Western Stornway area, there's very few grottoes in the area, and a single item-gathering point (seashells, on the southern stretch of beach). The bulk of the Eastern Stornway area, including the entire northern beach, remains unused.** Played straight with characters. Plot-important [=NPCs=] generally get 3D sprites. Generic ones are all 2D sprites, recycled throughout the game.* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{DreamWeb}}''. There's plenty of items you can take, but the most of them are useless, and would just clutter your inventory. (things like plates, cups, lighters, and so on).* Averted somewhat in ''VideoGame/EarthBound'' due to useless items like the Protractor and Ruler. Some [=NPCs=] don't say anything useful, but are there to add witty lines. Finally, there are plenty of food items that are usable, but impractical by the time you reach them. Sure, eating a hamburger in combat (effectively instantly, and with no chance of indigestion!) is funny, but PSI powers are generally far more practical.* Averted in ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, most notably the more recent offerings. The sheer amount of useless items dropped into the environment (paintbrushes, mugs, flatware, etc.) threatens to boggle the mind.** Being on the same engine, ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/FalloutNewVegas'' do the same. However, a shrewd player will be able to tell important items from the rest of the VendorTrash and CowTools that litter the level. The older ones had TV dinners, popcorns, nuka-colas, ''pocket lint'', and others that do nothing but take up space in your inventory. You can also examine rocks. Do it enough times and your character will ''cry out in frustration''.* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' and ''VideoGame/Fallout2'':** The point-and-click aspect leads to a prevalence of "examining" objects similar to Wasteland. Therefore, even if the character sprites are the same, a player can tell the difference this way. Upon examining two men in leather jackets, you might see this:--->''You see a bar patron.''--->''You see a short, stocky man. He has the confident, relaxed stance of an experienced fighter.''** Used hilariously for innocuous items that aren't really meant to be examined. Upon examining a pile of rocks:--->--''You see a large pile of rocks.''--->--''You keep a close eye on these rocks, in case they move to attack you.''* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'':** Square's been subverting this trope since the first Final Fantasy. Coneria Town, the first city you can visit, has a well that you can inspect:--->This is a well. You might think that there is something to it... But in fact it is just an ordinary well.** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'':*** Subverted with Ziegfried; the character is interesting and appears throughout the game, but is completely unimportant. This characteristic has its own entry on TheGrandListOfConsoleRolePlayingGameCliches. Ziegfried's Contradiction: Just because someone is weird doesn't mean they're important.*** Subverted as you can go to an auction house where they are auctioning off multiple airship parts. This may seem important especially at that point in the game, where the plot revolves around getting an airship. But it is impossible to get them (nor the talking chocobo) as a bratty kid screams for her father to buy it for her, and the game doesn't let you outbid him, so the game is trolling you.** The infamous "1/35 Soldier" items in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' ("Collect all 12!") were hard to find more than a handful of and had no function (also the 'Custom Sweeper'). In a game famous for its confusing translations, these may have been supposed to be actual toys in-universe.** Averted in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX''. An NPC having a name isn't [[InterfaceSpoiler a hint of anything]]... unless there isn't an earlier ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' character with the same name. If there is, it's just a MythologyGag.* In ''Franchise/FireEmblem'', almost all enemy units or [=NPCs=] with unique sprites and more than a few lines of dialogue is either a boss or recruitable. Which is understandable, considering how many enemies you end up facing. There are aversions, though:** Anna, as she's just a RunningGag. Subverted in ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAwakening'', where she pops up as a merchant. You then get a sidequest where she helps a village. Unlike other NPC characters, she has a unique model, color scheme, and voice not only in her lines but going so far as to have quotes for critical hits and [[SuperMovePortraitAttack a picture as well]]. This points to her being playable, even getting the option for your lord to talk to her if he moves next to her, but absolutely nothing will recruit her. [[spoiler:If she survives, you get another sidequest where she pops up again, and this time IS recruitable. Then she explains that [[InexplicablyIdenticalIndividuals there are multiple Annas and that you've never met her before]].]]\\\\This continues with ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemFates Fates]]'', where Anna shows up as the person in charge of the [[DownloadableContent Dragon's Gate]] and also gives out one-time gifts in two different free-of-charge DLC chapters, but does not join your party. Instead, [[spoiler:there is a separate Xenologue, Anna on the Run, where she pops up again. It is essentially identical to the aforementioned Anna the Merchant Paralogue from ''Awakening'', only Anna must survive in order to be recruited. Like before, this is yet another Anna, distinct from the ones seen previously]].** Heimler from ''VideoGame/FireEmblemAkaneia'', a Paladin who, despite getting his own portrait, has no dialogue or importance and is just a normal enemy.* ''VideoGame/TheGodfather: The Game'' subverts this. There are various places that appear different on the map, many a locked door... While some of them are indeed significant, quite a few of those are {{Red Herring}}s that aren't of any consequence whatsoever, even in sidequests.* In ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoIV'', the dirt bike seemed to be an incredibly useless bike: not as fast as the speed bikes, not as cool-looking as the choppers, not as cool-sounding as any of the bikes. But, provided you choose the right storyline, Niko uses a dirt bike to chase [[spoiler:Pegorino]] in a helicopter. (Needless to say, the dirt bike also enables a [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMoments Crowning Moment of Awesome]]).* Subverted in ''VideoGame/KnightsInTheNightmare''. The added artbook gives details on all of the units and all of the knights, including age, personality, relationships with the other knights, and character portraits. This is actually important to using the transoul feature.* ''VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask'':** Near the beginning of the game, we find a masked character that ''manually'' opens doors unlike every other NPC in the entire game. This tiny fact foreshadows just how long his particular sidequest will go on for and how important he really is. [[spoiler:He even temporarily becomes a PC.]]** You get a notebook that is useful for sidequests -- of which the game has many. Any NPC who appears in this notebook after talking to you has a mask to give you. Characters that do not appear in the notebook are not important for sidequests, though they may still be important to the plot.* Subverted in ''VideoGame/MegaManZX Advent'' due to its attempts to avert YouAllLookFamiliar, where everyone you meet has different designs and personalities, except for the guys in uniform, who still act different. In other words, trying to rely on this trope to see who is important is completely pointless for this game. Though, as in all ''Franchise/MegaMan'' games, the only ultimately really important ones are the robot animals/things actively shooting you.* The ''VideoGame/MegaManBattleNetwork'' series is a strong example. Since there seem to be OnlySixFaces used for all the generic [=NPCs=] ever, anyone with a unique sprite is bound to have a [=NetNavi=] that you will eventually fight [[DefeatEqualsFriendship and/or]] befriend. It is particularly noticeable in ''Battle Network 5'', since you are in the process of building an anti-terrorism task force; if you're told to be on the lookout for a new member, expect the very next place you enter to have an NPC with a unique sprite, and expect that exact same member to be the operator of the next Navi to join your team.* In ''Monster Girl Quest'', other than kings and other rulers, only the monster girls get any paper dolls (the rest are [[FacelessMasses just human-shaped blobs of colors]]), and they're usually the only ones with names as well. [[BetterThanABareBulb Like many other tropes in the game]], this is lampshaded.-->'''Alice:''' Hey, Villager A, come over here.-->'''Villager A:''' Why would you call me that when I have such a glorious name? I'm ''Cervantes!''-->'''Alice:''' I don't care.* ''Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona'':** In ''Persona 3 Portable'', the PSP rerelease of ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'', a random faceless character was added in the game's bar/night club. He makes some pretty ominous statements throughout the game, but the last thing he says near the end of the game is followed by a portrait. This leads fans to believe that due to the Law of Conservation of Detail, he is important. Turns out he's a character named Vincent, protagonist of an Atlus psychological horror game titled ''VideoGame/{{Catherine}}''.** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' exemplifies this trope. Every detail has meaning. The guy who gets rejected by Yukiko at the beginning of the game?[[spoiler: Serial killer suspect. Turns out to be a copycat.]] The council secretary who is having an affair? [[spoiler: Serial killer suspect. Turns out he was being duped.]] The TV announcer he was having the affair with? [[spoiler: Murder victim.]] The bumbling detective who can't keep his mouth shut? [[spoiler: The serial killer.]] The gas station attendant you shake hands with in one of the very first scenes? [[spoiler: The one behind everything that happens in the entire game.]] The list goes on.** Most seemingly minor characters and scenes in ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' play into the overarching plot or one of the other character's backstories:*** The drunken molester who got you convicted of assault? [[spoiler:He's the leader of the conspiracy.]] *** That stupid conversation about how the TV station building is shaped like a pancake? [[spoiler:Eventually allows Morgana and the Protagonist to deduce Goro Akechi is the traitor.]]*** That blue ButterflyOfDeathAndRebirth that keeps showing up? [[spoiler:It's Caroline and Justine's real personality, trying to help you expose the GreaterScopeVillain.]]* ''VideoGame/PokemonRedAndBlue'' and their remakes:** Subverted with a [[http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Truck#Rumors one-of-a-kind truck in the game]] (vehicles aren't seen anywhere else in the game since the preferred methods of travel are walking and flying or surfing on Pokémon) that can only be seen under very specific conditions at a certain point in the game before [[PermanentlyMissableContent becoming inaccessible]] (although there are ways to return to it later in the game); a very high percentage of players would not see it while playing through the game. Endless rumors were spouted about the truck, such as finding a Mew there, etc.; however, the truck actually had no real significance at all. The rest of the series just follow this trope in every possible way.** Subverted with the building foundation in Vermilion City, where a man is having his Machop "stop the land flat" in preparation for building. It appears in every version of Kanto in the series, and the building has still never been finished.* In the first ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil'' game, there's a single empty room in Jill's storyline. No puzzles, no items, no enemies. Turns out it's only important in Chris' scenario.* In ''VideoGame/MetalGearSolid'' there is but one room in the entire game that is ''entirely'' useless. In the Armory South (near where you fight Ocelot) there is a LV. 4 door that contains three gun cameras and no items. The ''entire'' reason it exists is to have a diesel generator in it, which [[ChekhovsGun a character mentioned way back near the beginning of the game was the reason the base had air vents big enough to crawl through]].* Avoided in ''Franchise/MetalGear'', ''VisualNovel/{{Snatcher}}'', ''VisualNovel/{{Policenauts}}'' and anything Creator/HideoKojima does, because of his ''obsessive-compulsive insanity''. He cannot stand to ''not'' worldbuild. The only people who care about the incredibly elaborate [[DeusAngstMachina tragic backstories]], sex lives and namedropping pertaining to characters who show up once and then die -- and the endless infodumps about guns and items and nuclear weapons and the future and useless metagame trivia -- are going to be fanfiction writers. For the most part, backstory events will be mentioned inconsequentially to add a little flavour to a character.\\\\For example, Hideo Kojima designed every desk in the first ''Metal Gear Solid'' separately. Every single desk! You have to respect a man who puts in that much work. And at least in ''MGS'' Kojima-san was nice enough to let players skip all that and go right to the neck-snapping if they want.* Averted in ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}''. The town is full of buildings you can enter and characters you can talk to, but only a handful of them are important in any way.* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'':** In ''VideoGame/SuikodenI'' you can tell in the games who is one of the [[OneHundredAndEight 108 Stars]]: If they have a portrait and a name, they're a Star (or a villain, but [[DefeatMeansFriendship those are often the same thing]]).** Subverted in ''VideoGame/SuikodenII'', however. There's a character with a portrait and a name (Ellie) that is neither a Star nor important to the story at all. She exists for one reason: In the quest that's unlocked if you load ''Suikoden I'' data at the start of the game, [[spoiler:Tir [=McDohl=] joins your party while Gremio occupies a Convoy space. However, if you failed to resurrect Gremio in the ''S1'' file you loaded, he'll be dead in this game, and Eilie will take his place in the plot, occupying the convoy and speaking his lines instead]].* ''VideoGame/TeamFortress2'':** This trope is guaranteed to drive Soldiers and Demomen to madness, especially on new maps, because the maps are ''all'' highly detailed, with lots of items to interact with, but also to give a map more flavor. The main reason for the frustration is that these are the two classes who get the most out of the RocketJump (or Bomb Jump for Demomen), and a map with a lot of detailed protrusions will not necessarily indicate which ones are solid platforms which can be jumped to and either traversed or used for a height advantage, and which ones are intangible set dressing. For instance, Thunder Mountain which takes place on a cliffside logging mill. There are models of logs suspended over a BottomlessPit that look like dangerous but rewarding paths to target areas...where some parts of the crane holding up the log are solid, useful platforms and others are not, with no indication as to which is which. Some players will jump onto the log, find it solid, then try to jump onto the crane, thinking it's also a platform, and finding out it isn't after plummeting to their doom.** The whole point of the "Prop Hunt" mode, which is Hide and Go Seek [[IncendiaryExponent with fire]]. One team of Scouts is disguised as a collection of world items and must remain HiddenInPlainSight against a team of Pyros who must hunt them down with flamethrowers. The challenge is that Pyros lose health when using their weapons, and must avoid dying while discerning which of the numerous highly detailed, cartoony objects on the map are decoys to be ignored and which are Scouts [[KillItWithFire to be ignited]]. Certain Prophunt maps even intentionally clip two pieces of scenery together just to make it look like a bad attempt at hiding. * Aversion: The later games in the ''[[VideoGame/{{Ultima}}]]'' try to create a realistic world that operates regardless of the player's involvement. In addition to armor and weapon shops, towns have jewelry stores, bakeries, restaurants, and other "useless" buildings. Played with, as sometimes the next step in the Avatar's quest requires unusual materials that have to be commissioned from civilian artisans.* {{Lampshade|Hanging}}d in ''[[Franchise/DotHack .hack//]]''. Several characters wonder why the graphics in the Hülle Granz Cathedral are so gorgeous when there's absolutely ''nothing'' there. Adding to the confusion is the fact that it's stated multiple times that private chats don't work there, leading to speculation about being unable to hide secrets from god. The Cathedral is, in fact, one of the most important areas in the entire ''franchise'' (every single story has something important happen there), but within the context of the GameWithinAGame, there really isn't anything there.** There IS an explanation in universe. It's part of a special area that was partly dummied out during the transition from Fragment (the game's beta version). It was probably too closely tied to the black box that is the Aura system for CC Corp to remove it from the game. A specific item or spell could at one point be used to dispel the mists revealing the "Twilight Eye" and dried up lake bed, that in Fragment, was full. This ALSO adds more to the bridge revealing a red-tinted Chaos Gate, which normally only appear in Root Towns. By the time of the ''[[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games .hack//]]'' [[VideoGame/DotHackR1Games tetralogy]], the ability to reveal this is also dummied out. ** By the time of [[VideoGame/DotHackGU The World R:2]], it's one of many similar areas that have cropped up, known as Lost Grounds. They have official stories in the game's backstory as to their existence but again, there's nothing there and only serve to look pretty in-universe despite many story events happening there. (A few are repurposed as event areas, though.)* Many an UrbanLegendOfZelda was started thanks to this trope. Back in the day, when more rudimentary technology meant a much stricter enforcement of this, people took it for granted that only the important stuff would get detailed. So as technology got better and developers started averting this trope for the sake of providing a richer gaming world, gamers payed attention to neat but nonessential details (e.g. the [[Franchise/SuperMarioBros Mario]] character portraits seen through a window in ''[[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaOcarinaOfTime Ocarina of Time]]'') and thought that they had some greater significance.* Modern InteractiveFiction loves this. One-room games where the player must use everything in the room are common--if there's a wad of gum in the trash can, sooner or later that will be an important wad of gum. From playing these games, audiences come to expect this, too, making it a self-fulfilling cycle: If your game mentions the walls, players will get mad if the walls aren't fully implemented.* One Sega CD role-playing game would say things like "Who would talk to a cow" if you talked to the cow, as all role players will do. Also mentioned "Wow the guards and castle are laid out exactly the same in this castle as they were in the last one. Maybe that is to show how the two kingdoms are very closely tied, or maybe the programmers were just lazy."* Since every object in a game has to be created from scratch, unlike, say, movies, where the world conveniently exists already, this is inevitable in video games of all types with regard to the environment. There simply aren't the resources in terms of textures or manpower to create, say, five hundred unique cars, or thousands of different books to fill a library that only makes up part of a single level. Some games have started creating [[ProceduralGeneration procedural]] plant life and {{mook}}s, but man-made products are likely to always be subject to this trope.** Any newspapers you see will always be either the cover or a single page with a story relevant to the game, even if they're supposed to be random pages blowing in the wind.** Books will usually be relevant to the plot or at least relevant to its message; an evil doctor might have fifty copies of ''Frankenstein'' lining his various shelves, for example.** Industrial equipment will usually look brand-new and catalog-fresh, with no signs of wear and tear and everyone mysteriously using just one brand of any given piece of equipment. (If an object does look worn, every other one of those objects will be worn in exactly the same way.)** Buildings that aren't falling down for plot reasons will look like they've just been finished and certainly never lived in.** In any game without an inventory system (and many with), no matter what is displayed on a vending machine, using or destroying it will cause it to dispense exactly one type of product, usually cans with no discernible logo.** If you're going through an office, any desk, office or cubicle which contains significantly more objects than normal will belong to a character important to the plot in some way. This also tends to apply to houses in AdventureTowns. If not, the clutter will be part of a puzzle of some kind.** People have an odd habit of barricading any rooms of their house you don't actually need to visit, often using their inexplicable collection of identical furniture. [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence This works even if the furniture and doors are wood and you have a gun that one-shots tanks]]. Alternatively, a MasterOfUnlocking might be part of your team to only open the doors that actually have things behind them.** All guns use the same types of ammo. If you do get ammo for a gun you don't have, you'll have a chance to acquire it later. Even uncommon types tend to be just lying around in plain sight. Any given type of ammo will be in the same type of box, and any gun cabinets will be unlocked. If it is locked, you'll need a puzzle to find the key, instead of just finding the owner, or their body. Strangely, gun cabinets tend to the same types of problems encountered with barricaded doors above.*** This last one is amusingly subverted by Bungie's early game Pathways into Darkness. You start the game with a .45 pistol and an M-16 rifle. The former you never find any ammo for, the latter has a bent barrel. Both are completely useless.* ''VisualNovel/NineHoursNinePersonsNineDoors'' has a number of moments where characters will give speech and lectures about seemingly unrelated things: Chemical morphing, The Ship of Theseus paradox, Titanic's sister ship, a myth about a mummy, morphogenetics, telepathy, experiments on British TV involving pictures, the infamous 'predictions' made in the book Futility, and a number of other things. Everything seems random and without a connection...that is until the game's climax where ''every single detail'' of ''every single speech'' made throughout the game suddenly connects together to form a logical basis behind [[spoiler:Junpei sending the answer to a puzzle through time to save Akane's life in the past]]. ** The most striking example is when you're locked in a freezer, obviously needing to escape as soon as people - Then your two companions suddenly start talking about chemicals seemingly "communicating". It comes off as especially odd when the game gives you to option to either say you're interested or that you think they should probably get out the freezer before they start casually chatting about science. The correct option to pick to reach the game's true ending is ''the former''. Although [[spoiler:it's justified that your two companions would suddenly talk about it, since they're purposefully trying to drop information about such things to the protagonist. It was just a convenient time for them to do so, when they found some dry-ice, sparking a comment about how it's just solid carbon dioxide]]* ''VideoGame/TheWitness'': Blow made a point of noting in the run-up to ''The Witness''[='=] release that adventure games of the past didn't use this trope well: they would either render too many things in the game environment, confusing players on what objects to interact with; or, if text based, have a text parser so rudimentary that it couldn't be programmed with all of the nuanced phrases a player may randomly come up with. In ''The Witness'', anything that can be interacted with is generally easy to spot (even if it's not easy to solve.)[[/folder]]

[[folder:Visual Novels]]* ''Franchise/AceAttorney'':** Every piece of evidence in the [[ChekhovsArmoury Court Record]] -- besides the lawyer's badge, etc. -- is used in most cases every game.** Profiles in ''Justice for All'' and ''Trials & Tribulations'', a notable case in the latter being the one time in the entire series when the character you're currently playing shows up in the profiles screen. Of course you're bound to present it at some point. The lawyer's badge gets used once or twice outside of the courtroom. You even had to present the screwdriver, which had importance exactly because it has ''no importance at all'', which throws suspicion on the suspect's reasoning for having Edgeworth personally pick it up in the first place.** A "unique" one happens in ''VisualNovel/AceAttorneyInvestigationsMilesEdgeworth''. In Case 5, "Turnabout Ablaze," which is the last and LONGEST case, Edgeworth tidies his evidence several times, removing used and useless evidence. [[InterfaceSpoiler And so you know "Samurai Dogs" are going to be used at some point because it survived the first two "evidence-sortings."]]** ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneyDualDestinies'' plays with this. Several pieces of evidence may not be used for more than reference, and characters make a point of tidying up unnecessary evidence between chapters. Some items, despite having an icon, may not actually show up in your court record, and at one point evidence previously thrown out is swapped back in when they become relevant again. In fact, a lot of evidence is kept, and ends up being used for a completely different reason that you think it's gonna be used for. One particular example coming in the DLC case, where you carry around a piece of fish for the entire case, with it never leaving the the court-record throughout despite the many "unnecessary evidence disposed off" moments. This obviously leads you into thinking the fish will be one of, if not THE big piece of evidence that'll crack the case. [[spoiler:In actual fact, you don't even use it until the episode's epilogue, and then it's just to give it to Orla the Orca as a treat.]]** In the fourth case of ''VisualNovel/PhoenixWrightAceAttorneySpiritOfJustice'', even when it seems like everything is about to be wrapped up nicely, it's obvious a twist is coming up because you were told much earlier about a dog eating dumplings and burying the leftover in the backyard. Of course, these dumplings end up being an important clue.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]* In ''Webcomic/ElGoonishShive'' the author had intended for a minor character (the principal of a school specifically) to have a massive scar and eyepatch. Due to this law he chose not to since he had no intention of spending the time necessary to make them relevant.* ''Webcomic/{{Goblins}}'' - A strip introduces a prominent glass [[http://www.goblinscomic.com/02092010/ window]] on an inn. Prominent and shiny. [=MinMax=] is forbidden to smash it. There is exactly zero chance the window will remain intact.* ''Webcomic/{{Homestuck}}''. Every detail is either important or will later get reused for a CallBack or RunningGag. ''Every. One.'' And there are a lot of them.* [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] in ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'' when Elan meets Julio Scoundrél. Elan, who wants to get on an airship to get to Azure City from Cliffport, starts a conversation with a random man in the tavern. It turns out that this man is actually an airship captain. See quotes page for the conversation.** Also doubly subverted in chapter 454, where Haley fires four arrows to hit the goblin leaders so they take notice of them and fight them instead of entering the castle. After four panels, all of the arrow miss:-->'''Haley:''' I mean, why spend four panels watching the arrow if it wasn't going to do anything???-->'''Hinjo:''' It got someone's attention, all right... Just not the right someones.-->Cue the entire goblin legion aiming their bows at them.** Lampshaded on page 889, when they awaken from a wish-fulfillment illusion:-->'''Elan:''' Plus, it woulda been weird for everyone to mention that Girard was into illusions and then not see, like, ''any''. Who wastes perfectly good {{foreshadowing}} like that?** Conservation of detail is name-dropped by Tarquin when he arranges for Ian to be blamed for the assassination of Ambassador Gourntonk. He could have pinned the crime on anyone, but went with Ian because he's an established character.* Invoked by Gabe in a ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'' strip where, while playing Skyrim, he insists on carrying 270 pounds worth of ''brooms'' because he didn't [[http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2011/11/14 "want to get to the fucking Broom Dungeon and be, like, 'why didn't I pick up all those brooms?'"]]* In ''WebComic/TheSearchForHenryJekyll'', Hyde doesn't know or care about his first murder victim, but the fact that she keeps coming up gives clues as to her importance. Her sister wants revenge on Jekyll for it.* In ''Webcomic/CobwebAndStripes'', expect that a lot of things from the early chapters - particularly things said by Betelgeuse - to become important later. Good luck figuring out which ones, though.[[/folder]]

[[folder:WebOriginal]]* The known reroll situation from ''Franchise/{{Noob}}'' becomes revelant in ''Film/NoobLeConseilDesTroisFactions''. Several characters have rerolls, all implied to be on the same gaming account as their main avatar. The only exception to the pattern is Gaea, who explicitly has her two avatars on different accounts, but is also the only one ever seen using both at the same time, which could explain why she needs two accounts despite the possibility of just making a second avatar on the same account. In ''Film/NoobLeConseilDesTroisFactions'', it turns out that she ''has'' made other avatars on her main account, but they're mules. [[spoiler:There's five of them and they're loaded with in-game currency, which makes her fortune six times the maximum sum she would have been able to keep with her main avatar alone.]]* The Phase novels of the Literature/WhateleyUniverse seem to run on this trope. There's so much detail you can't tell what's going to be important in this chapter, and what's going to matter at the end of the book, and what will be crucial three novels later. In book 4, Phase becomes insistent that fellow student could be an avatar of Hera. (He's right, but no one believes him then.) Then he works out from that who the other Greek gods are. In book 7, this knowledge is critical to getting the team out of a holographic simulation that has been rigged to kill them.* Reaches new levels in ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}''. The main characters are thoroughly detailed, side characters have fairly generic armour and appearances, and background characters are literally just black silhouettes. It's a little less blatant by Vol. 2 when the background characters were at least given generic appearances.[[/folder]]

[[folder:Western Animation]]* A ''WesternAnimation/{{Gargoyles}}'' episode started with Brooklyn making a remark about mosquitoes. While that alone was unusual, by the time a second one was mentioned, it became obvious they will be vital to the plot. [[spoiler: Turns out they were drones used by Demona to collect blood samples from the Gargoyles, so Sevarius could clone them.]]* Averted by Creator/{{Pixar}} with the Pixarpedia - even sub-minor characters, such as nameless, faceless, do-nothing bystanders get an entry in the encyclopedia. This is still ultimately played straight, as we don't learn the names and backstories of minor characters in the films because of this trope.** This aversion can be attributed to another trope: the UniverseBible. For any given book, movie, or television series, the people making it more likely than not have developed aspects about the characters and the world far beyond either what can be shown in the work itself; be it due to time, being hard to naturally work into the plot, and (of course) being too unimportant to the story being told. You don't need to know the first name of a character's mother, or how the city was built, if they has nothing to do with the events of the story after all.* One episode of ''{{Stoked}}'' featured the Ridgemounts (minus Lo) planning a trip to Thailand and one of Lo's friends recorded on Smartphone what she thought of them for that. Later, they record evidence that Lo's big brother's girlfriend was a GoldDigger. Guess what Lo showed her family.* The show ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' [[ZigzaggedTrope zig-zagged]] this quite often. Plot points like the bunker, the gobblewonker, and [[CloudCuckoolander 8 1/2 president Quentin Trembley]] were dropped after their first episode and only referenced off-handedly once or twice throughout the rest of the series; other points, such as the agents and the "Time Police" ended abruptly in rather anti-climactic ways. On the other hand, several important details, such as [[ChekhovsSkill McGucket's seemingly random ability with robots]], the journals, and the vending machine secret door were played straight and became extremely vital to the plot as a whole.* In ''WesternAnimation/WinxClub'' season 3, viewers expected that Chimera being a fairy studying at Beta Academy would become important, and complained about [[TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot plot waste]] when it proved otherwise. During the same season, Aisha briefly mentions that some places still have [[ArrangedMarriage Arranged Marriages]], and later she discovers that she's been placed into one.* There are many random mutants released from Genosha in the Slave Island episode of ''WesternAnimation/XMen''. Except they aren't so random at all, seeing how Mystique is one of them. The Blob is also there, and several others who will become important in later episodes.* ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'' is filled with so many examples, that when asked by a fan why there was so much "filler", a writer immediately countered that ''nothing is filler''.** In "Cheeseburger Backpack", the Gems are careful to mention how many of Steven's ideas worked along their trip to the Lunar Sea Spire, conveniently seeming confused or frustrated at every challenge, only for Steven to find a creative solution. Tellingly, Pearl is oddly dismissive of the fact that their apparent goal of restoring the statue to the spire is brushed off as unimportant. Half a season later, [[spoiler:it's revealed that that entire mission was a test to see if Steven was ready to accompany the group on dangerous missions.]]** Garnet ends the episode "Arcade Mania" with a humorous quip about the group keeping Amethyst. Yet again, half a season later, [[spoiler:and we learn that Amethyst was found abandoned in a [[BizarreAlienReproduction Kindergarten]] and was adopted by the group's previous leader.]]** Everything spouted by the resident ConspiracyTheorist, sounds hilarious if utterly pointless. In his debut episode, they are...until the end of his rant in that episode, where he is now obsessed with rock people, with most of his theories -- [[spoiler:their alien nature, the existence of a Diamond Authority, a suggestion that Gems are burrowing into the Earth, etc.]] -- proving to be true. Later episodes continue to have his theories serve as foreshadowing to future events.** A number of background elements seen when the Crystal Gems visit old Gem locations on Earth hinted heavily at [[spoiler: the [[GreatOffscreenWar Great Gem War]] that took place thousands of years ago]].* The characters of ''WesternAnimation/TootAndPuddle'' aren't normally shown to have teeth, but Opal's loose tooth is shown in the book ''Charming Opal'' and her full upper teeth, including the loose one, are shown in the television story "Opal's Looth Tooth." Also, both Toot and Puddle flash full, toothy smiles at her in this story to show that they grew all their teeth back after losing them.[[/folder]]----